Despite having 1.3m registered voters, low turnout mars FCT poll

Low turnout of eligible voters and late commencement of voting marred the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), area council’s election on Saturday.

At several places visited by The Guardian, only a handful of people were at polling units to elect their council leaders and lawmakers.

Some of the polling units across the nation’s capital recorded glitches in the use of Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) technology, which led to the delay in the electoral process

Residents of the nation’s capital are to elect chairmen and councillors for the six area councils.

The Area Councils are Abaji, Bwari, Gwagwalada, Kuje, Kwali and Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC)

The election will see the emergence of six chairmen – for each area council – and 62 councillors.

1,373,492 registered voters were expected to participate in the elections for Chairmen and Councillors, in 2,229 polling units but it was gathered that only about 103,68 voters collected their Permanent Voters Card (PVCs).

Over 400 candidates drawn from 14 political parties cleared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and their running mates are currently vying for these positions.

The FCT Police Command earlier announced the imposition of a curfew from 8 am to 3 pm for the safe conduct of the area council elections.

Although markets and shops are closed, at Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), the restriction of vehicular and human movements were partially observed.

At Ward 04 Wuse Polling units 26 located Maitama Model Primary School visited, INEC officials were seen on the ground but voters were absent as at 9.30 am

The PU which has 5617 registered voters, is probably one of the largest PUs in the FCT. However, as of 10 am, voting was yet to commence.

The assistant presiding Officer Muhammad Jamal lamented the low turnout of voters. According to him, for almost two hours election officials arrived at the PU, only three voters had approached them.

Also at Ward 04 Wuse PU131 j Maitama model primary school has only one registered voter.

The presiding officer told the Guardian that the INEC officials would wait until the close of voting whether the voter comes or not.

At PU15 and 16, Area 8 city center, it took about 20 to 30 minutes for each vote to be completed.

At PU018, Post office, Municipal Area 10, voting commenced at 8.55 am. At 10.30 am, about 150 voters out of 3311 registered voters had cast their votes.

The presiding officer, AbdulBaki Jato, described the BVAS as efficient, saying it takes about five minutes for accreditation and voting to take place.

An agent of the All Progressive Congress, Aposu Samuel, linked voter apathy to citizens’ lack of interest in council elections.

“Right now, people just vote and go. They are not even interested in seeing the final results. Perhaps it is because it is a council election. They wouldn’t have gone if it were governorship or presidential pool.”

Meanwhile, Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in the FCT, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, after observing the election at PU018, Post office, Municipal Area 10, described the process as smooth, noting that no report of violence has been reported.

He hailed residents for maintaining a peaceful atmosphere while urging more citizens to come out and exercise their rights.